Task force report faces immediate criticism

Among questions are changes to Toronto police culture and closing of some divisions

A report aimed at overhauling Canada’s largest municipal police force faced strong criticism Thursday at a board meeting, where concerns were expressed on matters ranging from unexplained costs to the closing of divisions to doubts that the recommendations would actually be implemented.

Among the harshest critics of the report, approved by the Toronto Police Services Board, was former mayor John Sewell, head of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition.

In a passionate presentation to the board, Sewell questioned a statement in the report expressing the hope that “money not become the focus of discussion” on police modernization and transformation.

“In all my time in municipal politics, I have never heard people come forward and say, ‘Forget about the money!’ ” Sewell told the board. “Well, I don’t want to forget about money.

“The reason you undertook this is that you’re spending too much money right now.”

Faced with skepticism that the report’s recommendations would be implemented, Mayor John Tory and board members stressed built-in accountability measures — including quarterly progress reports — and encouraged frustrated community members to participate in the change.

“I understand the reasons for cynicism,” Tory said. “There have been reports before, but I don’t think they have come as far along as this one has or involved the same expenditure of time and commitment.”

Prepared by a committee of police and civilians and unveiled last month, the socalled Transformational Task Force report aims to fix problems that have long dogged Toronto police, including ballooning costs and declining public trust.

“In all my time in municipal politics, I have never heard people come forward and say, ‘Forget about the money!’ ” JOHN SEWELL TORONTO POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY COALITION

A year in the making and the result of consultations with the public, academics and officers, the task force makes broad-ranging recommendations in its final report. Recommendations include the closing of some of Toronto’s 17 police divisions through a redesign of the divisional map, beginning with the merger of 54 and 55 divisions; a 30per-cent reduction in the number of eligible paid-duty assignments performed by police officers; increased use of technology to encourage officers to get out of their cars and into communities; and the use of alternative or shared service delivery of court services and parking enforcement, including the use of more civilians.

The task force claims to have found some $100 million in savings for the service’s operating budget over three years, $60 million coming from a three-year freeze on hiring and promotions that has already started.

But Sewell and others at Thursday’s meeting questioned whether sufficient accounting had been done on other recommendations, such as the move toward greater use of technology.

Some recommendations have already been acted upon, including the shuttering of the controversial Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy unit, notorious in some communities for its high rate of “carding.”

The task force acknowledged TAVIS had “unintended impacts on communities, especially among racialized youth who felt unfairly targeted,” according to the report. The report also recommends “neighbourhood-centric policing,” an attempt to help officers build relationships with the communities they serve.

Among the recommendations is one that officers be assigned to neighbourhoods for a minimum of three years, to enable communities and officers time to build trust with one another.

Answering concerns about whether his officers would be receptive to the recommendations, and whether communities with deep mistrust of police would see positive change, Chief Mark Saunders said he would not have put so much effort into something he was not committed to implementing.

Since its release, the report has received mixed reviews from policing experts and critics, particularly on the all-important topic of police culture.

Last year, the task force said the final version of the report would tackle the issue of culture — what it called the “essential underpinning” of the transformation plan.

Critics say the task force failed to define what the current policing culture is, what it should be, and how to get there.

Alok Mukherjee, a former Toronto police board chair who was on the board when Saunders was hired in 2015, said the report was “very light on details” when it came to concrete steps to effect a culture change.

Success also hinges in part on cooperation from the Toronto Police Association. Some of the recommendations with the greatest cost-cutting potential — namely, changes to shift scheduling and the night requirement that there be two officers per police car — require changes to the association’s collective agreement.

Mike McCormack, head of the police association, has been harsh in his criticism of the task force report, calling it a city hall cost-cutting exer- cise that will result in a dangerous decline in police ranks.

Shelley Carroll, a city councillor and police board member, referred to the union opposition Thursday as a clear sign of the document’s strength.

“There must be real change in this document, or the association wouldn’t be so nervous,” she said. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca.